


You have suffered enough and warred with yourself, it's time that you won

by sal_paradise



Category: Doom Patrol (TV)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Forehead Touching, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post episode 5, Touch-Starved, just a mummy and his robot snuggling for comfort, some of the most human people in doom patrol are the least human in appearence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 08:40:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sal_paradise/pseuds/sal_paradise
Summary: post  1x05Larry is not left aloneCliff comes to check on himcomfort ensues





	You have suffered enough and warred with yourself, it's time that you won

**Author's Note:**

> Take this sinking boat and point it home  
> We've still got time  
> Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice  
> You'll make it now  
> Falling slowly, eyes that know me  
> And I can't go back  
> Moods that take me and erase me  
> And I'm painted black  
> You have suffered enough  
> And warred with yourself  
> It's time that you won ~ Once the Musical
> 
> i love these two so much  
> they deserve someone to love them
> 
> post 1x 05 Larry has some unexpected company

* * *

 

For the briefest of moments- Cliff Steele had  felt good about himself- felt good about dare he say it? His teammates.

They had done it.

They had undone the apocalypse.

 

Of course it was done with mumbo jumbo magic  bullshit that some Constantine knock off had- but it had worked;The Recreator had outdone the Decreator- in the ideal world, they’d  cheer, pat themselves on the back and go for drinks-But Mr. Nobody had brought a cruel reality crashing down he had rendered them useless, powerless, weak. He  had cruelly snatched the Chief away from them as quickly as he had given him back and disappeared.

 

Cliff had seen the horror on the other’s face  as their leader disappeared and as Nobody sabotaged Vic’s own tech against him.

The whole event had left them  shaken to their cores, back where they started.

Jane had  retreated almost  at once, after knowing they had  failed Cliff didn't even try to stop her- he knew Hammerhead would not take mercy on him.

Vic refused help and the look he gave Cliff  told him he wasn't in the mood for any more of his help.

Rita blissfully unaware Rita still sat in the  garden, waiting for the boy Elliot’s return.

And Larry...

 _Wait_ , _where_ _was_ _Larry_?

The other man had disappeared in the chaos post Vic’s accident.

Cliff sighed.

He knew the other man probably didn't want to see him-Hell every time he felt the wall between them all lower,   someone would throw a brick and they were reinforced tenfold.

Cliff was lost.

As a human he had been someone who sought affection, first genuinely  then as his dirtbag self, anywhere he could pay for it.

Touch was  touch when it boiled down to it  he argued; But of course he knew that wasn't true.

He had phantom feelings of  eating, of want, but most of all touch, hugs, and kisses, of warm bodies pressed against his in trust  and affection.

The feel of the vulnerable and easily broken skin.

But that was no more.

He was as those Nuremberg fucks had rudely reminded him a “brain in a container…”

The Robot man restlessly paced the hallways till he came to Larry’s door, he craned his head  listening when he heard it, a startled gasp and a choked off sob.

 _Larry_.

Something was wrong.

Guarding himself for whatever reaction he took a deep breath and knocked.

“Larry?”

The soft sobbing stopped-

“Larry it’s me- Cliff."

No response.

“Just  checking you’re okay? We had a tough go at things… I’m coming in.”

Cliff  expected the door to be slammed back in his face but it opened with ease.

The room was pitch black in fact Cliff had thought maybe he had  imagined it- until he saw the small silhouette bundled on the bed shift.

“Larry?” He took a cautious step in-

No reaction.

As if approaching a timid deer, Cliff crept in till he was able to perch on the other man's bed. He knew  for sure something wasn’t right, he felt that phantom queasiness in his would have been stomach.

 

Larry was cradled on his side, knees  drawn up to his chest arms wrapped around as tightly as he could  rocking gently, attempting to self sooth.

 

The robot’s heart  broke right away seeing the other man.

“Larry..." Cliff reached out a  tentative hand his touch  landing gently on the other man’s leg only to have  him violently jerk away; Drawing on himself even more he shuddered silently.

 

“I’m sorry Larry I- fuck” Cliff managed flustered he sucked at this he  truly did.but he didn't feel right leaving the clearly upset man on his own.

 

“I’ll just  sit here okay? You’re not alone." Cliff sat silently  staring at his hands and he sighed listening to Larry’s small moans and sobs, he felt powerless- he couldn’t let the other man suffer alone…

Slowly, ever so slowly he pushed himself onto the bed and closer to Larry.

 

Larry shuddered despite himself as Cliff now sat at his side, he was silent giving Larry space,  finally he spoke.

 

“I know how you  feel” Cliff managed “ I feel the same way.”

There was a small pause in the other man’s sobs as if he was listening “ you feel like a monster.” Cliff confirmed “ you feel like you’re unworthy of being touched, of being liked, of being held and being loved.” the robot managed.

The room was silent.

He saw Larry shift  clearly now paying attention .

 

“I was a shit human being Larry” Cliff managed “  I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and fuck everyone else.”

 

Larry was silent but now sitting up  “ and you know what? It finally caught up with me, now I’m-” he simply  held up his hands “ karma's a bitch huh?”

 

Larry  looked like he wanted to say something- it  was funny how so much could be said with so little as the man nodded in sympathy.

 

“ Now I just want a place to belong- I think at the end of the day  everybody does.”

 

Larry stared into those deep red luminous eyes, and found they held so much sadness- was that something Chief  had done?

_No_

_That  was Cliff. Just Cliff._

Larry sat fully up and slowly  cautiously his hand snaked out to the big tin  man.

 

“ Is there a place like that for us Cliff?” he managed or are we just fooling ourselves?”

Cliff would have frowned if he could.

 

“ I just hurt people, I drag everyone down with me in my  old life and now with all of you with Chief, with Rita, with Jane, with you-”  he shakes his head miserably “I deserve what I

get.”

Cliff felt something  ache in him anew for the other man  “I hurt everyone, this is my fucked up afterlife and this thing inside is just thriving in it.”

 

Cliff felt something tug at him he knew  arguing with the man would do no good, he couldn’t see Larry’s face but he knew that  crippling pain that was tied like an albatross around Larry’s neck dragged him down more and more  every day, one day he would fully give up trying to fight it off.

Everyone in this house had been hurt some much that they didn't know how  to reach out to other.

_How did you  tell someone they aren't a waste?_

 

Cliff could feel Larry  wanting to trust someone wanting to  rely on someone to cross the bridge and  have someone to lean on.

A leap of  faith.

 _Lord, how were the two most  inhuman in this household the ones that felt the most human?_ Cliff thought in  frustration.

“Larry”

A beat.

“Yeah Cliff?”

“ You won’t hurt me” Cliff managed.

“Cliff I-”

“I said, you won’t hurt me Larry.”

 

Before  the bandaged man could react, Cliff wrapped Larry in his embrace, he knew he was taking a risk- he didn’t know if the creature inside the pilot would  perceive him as threat.

 

Larry lay against his side stiffly,  like a cat refusing to be hugged - patiently  waiting for Cliff to grow frustrated and let him go, push him away as Larry  had done to everyone before- a reaffirmation that he wasn’t worthy of love.

 

But Cliff wasn’t  about to give up that  easily-“ come on Trainor I know you’re not this stiff, I’m the robot here” he chided.

 

Larry  snorted despite himself

 

“ You can’t hurt  me Larry” Cliff managed tugging him closer “ trust me.”

Cliff’s message was clear...

_You're not a monster._

_You’re not a threat._

_You're not destroying anyone's life._

_You deserve love._

 

Larry felt  himself firmly  pressed against the  surprisingly warm metal  body of Cliff Steele

“You’re ok Trainor, I’ve got ya” Cliff hummed.

 

_But who had Cliff?_

 

Larry could feel Cliff’s metals fingers surrounding his thin waist and surprisingly Larry felt… safe.

Safe in the arms of a giant metal man whose only  trace of humanity remained in his head.

 

 _No,_ he chastised himself  _that wasn’t right… Cliff was more human than most people in this house._

 

Slowly, Larry began to loosen up, his arms which were pressed to his side found place on Cliff’s  chest and around his waist, hugging him even tighter to the Robot Man.

 

 _You deserve love too_ he wanted to tell the other man-He settled for nuzzling in hoping he could pass the message.

He hasn't hugged or  been held like that in so long.

It felt nice.

It felt safe.

Larry felt wanted and needed, he was not for once  some negative void;He had place and purpose.

 

Even if it was a small one at this bizarre Robot Man's side.

 

“Don't you think you deserve this Larry? Cliff asked quietly in the dark, he was learned so far over Larry his head rest on the pilot’s- it felt good for him too to be close to someone-someone who made him feel human again.

 

“We both do” Larry managed surprisingly honest with himself for the first time in a long time

“The world can wait a little.”

 

Cliff hummed and squeezed the other man “yeah, yeah it can.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I love fraserbot and mummypilot Bomer with all my heart  
> yell about them with me  
> on the tumble life-on-the-geek-side


End file.
